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Sunday, June 4, 2017

Don't Go Away, Hillary

The problem isn't that Clinton is speaking about these critical issues; the problem is that not enough other prominent Democrats are.

Many of the calls for Clinton to "just go away" are based on this idea of a tradition that losing candidates just admit that they were awful and permanently retire from public life. But this "tradition" is entirely imaginary. For example: Bob Dole, John McCain and John Kerry all returned to the Senate; Mitt Romney hardly disappeared; and Al Gore has continued to take an active role in promoting environmental policies.

Even if there was such a tradition, it would be relevant only if the 2016 election was typical — but it was anything but. Clinton has no obligation to be silent, and her interventions should be judged like any other public figure.

What is striking is how many critiques of Clinton's arguments — for example: see this from Vox's Timothy B. Lee — don’t even try to engage with her claims on the merits. Lee, for example, doesn’t deny that the hacks of the DNC, DCCC and John Podesta’s inbox were damaging to her campaign, or that sexism played a role in negative coverage of Clinton; he just implies that Clinton should decline to discuss them.